Baby elephants are like buses. You wait forever for one and then two come along nearly at once. Dublin Zoo is celebrating the birth of its second baby elephant in less than a year.
The, as yet, unnamed male calf arrived into the world at 5am yesterday weighing in at 100kgs or 15 stone 11 pounds. Her mother Yasmin and baby are doing fine.
They have been left to bond and it may be weeks before the public gets to see the new calf.
The zoo never had an elephant birth before it imported three females from Rotterdam Zoo in 2006. They had been part of a herd which had outgrown its enclosure. The latest arrival follows on from the birth of Asha, last May to Bernhardine.
Dublin Zoo director Leo Oosterweghel was delighted. "It's not easy to breed elephants. The secret is facilities. They have a fantastic space here. Secondly, you need elephants who have seen births or given birth themselves. So much of what elephants do is learnt behaviour."
